Toby had been doing so well and was full of energy, which was awesome to see. Sam and his friend were playing on the trampoline on Wednesday night (9th February) and Toby decided to hop on with them. I was just about to get them off but decided to stop and check the tea in the oven first when I heard Toby screaming - both Bevan and I dropped what we were doing and went running to him!!
Toby complained of a sore knee and screamed whenever he moved. I headed over to ED to get it checked out. I explained to them that he was saying his knee was sore, but that the pain could have been coming from anywhere on his leg. They only x-rayed the knee, but told me that the x-ray would cover quite a large part of the leg. The results showed that nothing was broken, probably just some bruising to the knee and that I should just keep giving him Pamol and he should be much better in the morning.
Well overnight and in the morning Toby was still in agony, so I headed back over to ED. This time they had a proper look at his leg and x-rayed higher up and found that he had a fractured Femur bone right under his hip. The poor little man must have been in so much pain overnight. I felt terrible for not pushing for more the night before in ED as I had a feeling it was something more than just bruising, but who was I to disagree with medical experts????!!!!!
The Orthopaedic Doctors decided to put him into a Hip Spica cast (down one leg, half of the other leg and up to his belly button) to keep the leg from hurting when moved and to protect it from becoming worse. Toby had to be put under a general anaesthetic for them to do it (nothing new for him though!!).
The cast is hideously huge and he gets so frustrated at not being able to move (and I get frustrated at having to move him around the house every 5 minutes when he gets bored!!!!). At the moment he is sleeping in our bed as he wakes half a dozen times when he gets uncomfortable and I have to change the position he is lying in - much easier if he is next to me. Bevan has been kicked into Toby’s bed until the cast comes off hehehehe ;)
We had a bit of a drama organising Toby’s next trip to Starship for Chemo (which was just 3 days after his cast went on). There were all sorts of hiccups which seriously almost did my head in - whether we went on an Air Ambulance or Air New Zealand flight, whether or not I was allowed a support person to help me with Toby because of his awkward cast, whether or not we stayed in Hospital longer so we could get on the Air Ambulance easier and to top it all off when I was told I was going Air New Zealand there weren’t any flights available to get us to the appointment on time because they were all sold out due to the Mission Concert - I felt so overwhelmed and just wanted to run away (it didn’t help that both Bevan and my Mum were away for the weekend and I was trying to sort this all out on my own, but thank God for cellphones though). It was finally decided we would go on the Air Ambulance and even then on the Monday morning heavy fog delayed the plane!!!! But we got there in the end, just a little late for our appointment.
At Starship it was decided that Toby would have his Vincristine and Methotrexate through his Port, but he would not be able to have the Methotrexate via Lumber Puncture because of the cast - our Consultant said this wouldn’t matter, but we can’t help worrying that missing out on some treatment can’t be good?
We are off to Auckland
Toby will have another x-ray in 2 weeks time to see if the cast can come off or not.
So for me those few days were a real low point. I just felt so gutted that this had happened to Toby when he already has so much to deal with and then to top it off there was the drama surrounding getting to Starship. It just left me feeling so numb, frustrated and asking “why me” but I’m over it now - onwards and upwards right!!!??
